A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall…On Mitt Romney

At first I couldn’t watch the Republican Convention. The nonstop lying made me physically ill. Then I happened to tune in to Current TV’s coverage, and I was able to at least get a flavor of the sickening festivities. Current would run a few minutes of a Republican speaker spewing lies, Cenk Uygur would say, “Okay, that’s enough of that,” and then an excellent panel (Al Gore, Jennifer Granholm, Eliot Spitzer, John Fugelsang) would correct the record and rip the liars. It saved my sanity.

But what can the Obama campaign do to counter the Republican strategy of wall-to-wall lying? A reader at TPM has come up with something I really like:

If we hit October and Mitt is still thought of as honest, but lying continuously, then what? If the Romney campaign continues to lie with impunity, then I think the President needs to stare him down at the debate. I think the President needs to look directly at Mitt Romney and say, “Governor, in every speech you say that I have apologized for America. Well, tell me to my face: when did I apologize for America. Right now, in front of the American people, tell me. Tell us.” And then he should just wait. Mitt is very bad at unexpected moments. The silence (or, better yet, jabbering) will be deafening. And Romney will be rattled for the rest of the debate. It would be another moment, on the biggest stage, when Obama would look dominant.

Romney can run, but he can’t hide.

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Do you really think that Clint Eastwood’s rant was unscripted? It is hard to believe that every one else’s speeches were vetted and his was not! What a low point that was for the Republican Party! Although those I have spoken with about it loved it and thought it was very funny. That is our voting populace…YIKES!

By: Anonymous on Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 8:19 pm

Anonymous is your aunt!

By: Sharon Beaudoin on Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 8:20 pm

I still can’t understand why Eastwood — who’s no wingnut knuckledragger — pulled this stunt. I can only come up with two answers: 1) He doesn’t know anything about economics and genuinely believes a President Romney can help the working class. 2) He wants to create buzz around his new movie.

But any voter with more than half a brain is already voting for Obama. Any voter with less than half a brain is already voting for Romney. The battle is over those voters with exactly half a brain, and I just can’t see them being persuaded by Clint’s rant. It’s too performance-arty.